01-28-14
BY JACK BULLOCK
HARRISBURG –The Norris City-Omaha-Enfield Fighting Cardinals accomplished several of their goals on Tuesday night in a win over Thompsonville in the GEC Tournament quarterfinals.

Coach Bryon Graven wanted his club to get the Tigers’ big front line in foul trouble, which they did.

The Cards also wanted to get to the foul line (25-of-36 overall) so mission accomplished.

They wanted to pad their lead from the foul line while running clock in the fourth quarter; another goal attained.

By the time the final horn went off, the Cardinals had achieved the expectations for the contest and advanced to Friday nights’ semifinal round with a 55-44 win over the Tigers in the final of four quarterfinal games played on Monday and Tuesday at Southeastern Illinois College.

Chase Sutton led NCOE with 23-points, 10 of which came from 10-of-12 shooting from the foul line.

Dakota Wheeler, a 6-foot-4 senior forward, did his damage from the charity stripe as well.

He nailed 11-of-16 from the line while he added a couple of field goals for 15-points.

Cole Tucker and Blake Karnes added seven and six points respectively.

Tucker hit a big 3-pointer in the first half while Karnes drilled home 4-of-6 free throws in the fourth quarter to help secure the victory.

For the Fighting Cardinals, they advanced to the semifinal round while improving to 9-8 overall.

NCOE held a rebounding edge, 34-29 while both teams were nearly even in turnovers with the Cards committing 12 to 13 for Thompsonville.

“When you win the battle of the glass, we out rebounded them; when you win the battle at the foul line and then you have less turnovers than the team you are playing, that is the equation for a win,” said Coach Graven. “That is always part of the design. If we can get a match up and take advantage that is what we want to do. It worked out for us tonight.”

Thompsonville and head coach Mike Henson saw their mark slip to 8-10 overall while falling into the consolation bracket.

Freshman guard Tim Henson with 17-points while led the Tigers while teammate Ryan Darnell, a 6-foot-7 senior, tossed in 11-points in the defeat.

Quentin Henson added nine in the contest for Thompsonville.

There are several stats to point out in the Tigers loss, most notably a poor night shooting the ball.

Thompsonville managed just a 16-of-57 night (28 percent) while only getting 3-of-16 3-point shots to fall.

On the other hand, NCOE didn’t do a much better job from the floor but overcame all of those problems with foul shooting.

The Fighting Cardinals were 14-of-37 (37.8 percent) and just 2-of-11 from beyond the arc.

The two clubs played a pretty even first half but the Tigers felt the pinch of early foul trouble.

Both Ryan Darnell and Quentin Henson spent time on the bench after they picked up two fouls each in the first quarter.

After four consecutive scores by Tim Henson to open the second stanza, Thompsonville had its biggest lead of the night.

When he drove the lane for a score with 4:49 left, the Tigers led 16-10.

“We got our big guys in foul trouble tonight, we were out of position at times and when they are not on the court we are just not the same team,” said Coach Henson. “We took bad shots tonight. One bad shot leads to another. We did play harder tonight than we did the last time we played them (a 65-45 NCOE win on January 17) and there are some positives we can take from this. In the first half I thought we played pretty well. But in the third quarter we stopped doing the little things we needed to do.”

The foul troubles mounted for Thompsonville as NCOE paraded to the line in the second quarter and throughout the remainder of the contest.

A 3-pointer from Tucker, a rebound basket by Dakota Bond and two free throws by Wheeler gave the Cardinals back the lead at 17-16.

The two teams traded the lead five times in the final 3:18 of the half.

A drive to the basket by NCOE’s Sutton closed the second quarter at 24-23 Cards.

Coach Graven’s squad put some distance between themselves and the Tigers with an 11-2 run to close the third quarter.

Sutton and Wheeler again were the ones in charge, with Sutton converting a fast break chance while Wheeler took a pass from Tucker for a score and a 35-28 spread at the 4:23 mark.

Nate Glad, a 6-foot-3 sophomore for NCOE, got a big basket for his club while Sutton closed the frame with 3-of-4 from the line and a driving score on a nice spin move in the lane for a 42-30 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

During this pivotal third quarter stretch, Thompsonville was just 3-of-15 from the floor and committed three turnovers that helped fan the flames on the NCOE explosion.

The Tigers got to within nine points twice in the fourth quarter but the Cardinals answered every challenge and converted 9-of-14 from the line in the final 1:42 to sew up the win.

Thompsonville missed 14 additional field goal attempts in the fourth frame while adding four more turnovers to the slate.

NCOE kept the Tigers off the glass in the fourth quarter also, holding them to just four offensive rebounds, all on one possession that didn’t result in points.

The Tigers will take on Galatia on Thursday night in the consolation semifinals while NCOE will play Gallatin County, a winner over the Bearcats in the second game on Tuesday.

That game is set for Friday night at 7 pm.

“Chase, Cole and Blake did a good job tonight taking care of the basketball,” added Coach Graven. “We shoot a lot of free throws in practice and it paid off tonight. Everyone did a good job knocking down shots from the foul line tonight.”

Thompsonville (44) – K. Payne 2 0 0-0 4, T. Henson 4 2 3-6 17, L. Darnell 0 0 0-0 0, Q. Henson 3 0 3-5 9, R. Darnell 3 1 2-2 11, Parkhill 0 0 0-0 0, Kerley 1 0 1-1 3, A. Payne 0 0 0-0 0, Wilce 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-13, 3FG-3, FT-9-14, PF-23.
Norris City-Omaha-Enfield (55) – Glad 1 0 0-0 , Taylor 0 0 0-1 0, Bond 1 0 0-0 2, Karnes 1 0 4-6 6, Sutton 5 1 10-12 23, Sell 0 0 0-0 0, Tucker 2 1 0-0 7, Wheeler 2 0 11-16 15.
2FG-12, 3FG-2, FT-25-36, PF-15.
Fouled Out – Kerley - Thompsonville.
Technical Fouls – None.

GALLATIN COUNTY 58, GALATIA 55
The Hawks, the number two seed in the event, survived a scare from the Bearcats in the second game on Tuesday.

Coach Radar Patton’s troops got 15-points from Marcus Wargel, 12-points from Seth Ramsey and 10-points from Chandler Scates in the narrow win.

Galatia received 15-points from Bodie Beckman and 14-points each from Eric Emery and Michael Mondino in the loss.

Galatia (55) – Beckman 6 1 0-2 15, Brothers 0 1 0-0 3, Stanley 2 0 1-2 5, Emery 6 0 2-3 14, M. Mondino 5 0 4-5 14, Grubbs 1 0 0-2 2, Stricklin 1 0 0-0 2, Matthews 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-21, 3FG-2, FT-7-14, PF-18.
Gallatin County (58) – McGuire 3 1 0-0 9, Jackson 2 0 1-2 5, M. Ramsey 1 0 2-3 4, Scates 4 0 2-2 10, Wargel 6 0 3-5 15, Russell 0 1 0-0 3, S. Ramsey 1 2 4-9 12, T. Oldham 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-17, 3FG-4, FT-12-21, PF-13.
Fouled Out – Scates - Gallatin County.
Technical Fouls – None.